


Herding Cats

by conceptstage



Series: Single Chapter Critical Role [90]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 05:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20670065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/conceptstage/pseuds/conceptstage
Summary: Beau suspects that Caleb is hiding something when he comes home acting strange.





	Herding Cats

Beau glanced up when the front door opened, pausing as she laced up her new shoes. “Sup,” she said when she saw Caleb shuffle in. He gave her a nervous frown but she brushed it off as normal Caleb awkwardness and just turned back to her shoe. “Where you been?”

“Nothing.” Caleb started hurriedly shuffling through the foyer. “I mean, Hallo.”

Beau raised an eyebrow and glanced up inconspicuously to look at him. “Hi.” His shoulders were hunched and he was clearly trying to not to jostle his coat too much. He didn’t walk in full strides, he shuffled his feet shortly but quickly passed her towards his bedroom. Beau followed him with her eyes and smirked. He’d make a shit smuggler, she thought as she rose silently to her feet. 

Caleb hurried down the hallway and turned the corner into his bedroom and she snuck quietly after him. As she got closer, she could hear the quiet hum of his voice through the door and leaned against it. The door frame creaked when she rested her hand on it but Caleb didn’t pause in his private whispering. She cursed quietly when she couldn’t make out any of his words.

Was this an invasion of privacy? Yeah.

She opened the door anyway. She dodged to pillow that was thrown her way and caught it out of the air. 

“Beau!” he exclaimed. He had taken his coat off and she could see it lying on his bed so he couldn’t hide anymore. “It is not what it looks like.”

Beau frowned and looked down at the movement by his feet. There were four small, baby cats meowing quietly and rubbing against his ankles. One ran towards the open door and Beau gently scooped it up, looking down at it’s wide blue eyes and running her finger over it’s snow white fur. “Really? Cause it looks like you’re hoarding cats.”

Caleb frowned and twisted his fingers. “They were hungry.”

She sighed and shut the door to keep any of the kitten from escaping and sat the white one in her hand back on the floor. “Caleb…” She let out a deep breath through her nose, a little annoyed, a little fond. “You can’t keep them here. We’re gone for weeks at a time, we can’t take care of them.”

“I know that. Of course I know that,” he watched the cats sadly as they tumbled around his ankles. “I just couldn’t leave them there, it is going to rain tonight.”

Beau walked over to stand in front of him and sat down with her legs crossed in front of her, picking up one of the kittens and sitting it on her knee, scratching behind it’s little ear and down it’s back. “A couple days,” she said, gesturing for him to sit down across from her. He hesitated, looking under himself to make sure that her wasn’t about to sit on any of the cats, but moved to sit eventually. “We’ll work on finding them another home, you can keep them for a couple of days. Just don’t name them, you’ll get too attached.” Caleb nodded but didn’t speak or meet her eyes. “You’ve already named them, haven’t you?”

Caleb cleared his throat and pointed to each cat in turn. “Blitz,” the white one that had made a break for the door when Beau had stepped inside and was now staring up at the window. “Adelheid,” the caramel colored one that was curled into a scone shape on her knee. “Gerfried,” the black one that was hiding under the bed. “Und Gauner.” He held up the white one covered in black spots who meowed loudly and nipped at Caleb’s fingers.

“Goner?” she asked, her nose scrunching in distaste.

Caleb frowned. “Nein. Gauner.”

“Goner, that’s what I said. I don’t know, doesn’t seem like a very good name for a pet.”

“It is when you say it correctly,” Caleb mumbled, rubbing his thumb gently against Gauner’s face. He sighed and looked at the cat in his hand sadly. “Do not fret, Kleines Kätzchen. I will find you a good home. Although it is not really fair that Jester gets a weasel and I am not allowed to keep a single cat. And cats are much better at taking care of themselves than, say, a blink dog.”

Beau groaned in annoyance and rolled her eyes so hard that her head rolled around on her shoulders. “For fuck’s sake! Fine, you motherfucker, you guilted me into it. You can keep one of them.” She cradled Adelheid in her palm as she stood.

“You know, cats are very social creatures, they do not like to be alone. Perhaps two would be-”

“Shut up. Fine. You can keep the fucking cats.” She sat the caramel cat down near her foot and Adelheid meowed pitifully, clawing at her bare foot for attention. Beau stared at her for a moment and picked her back up. He could hear Adelheid purring in her hand even from several feet away. “This one is mine,” she said, turning towards the door and closing it behind her without another word.

Caleb smiled softly and ran his fingers over Gauner’s back. “Welcome home,” he said, sitting him down so that he could run over to his siblings by the wall.


End file.
